Above image is used for illustration purposes only / Credit: Port of Hamburg

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5G trials are conducted in Port of Hamburg

The Port of Hamburg is testing 5G, the next generation mobile standard that aims to transform communications. After six months of preparation the project partners, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Deutsche Telekom and Nokia, launched a testbed across some 8,000 hectares of port area. A base station has already been installed on Hamburg’s television tower as well.

The testbed has been set up to test 5G applications in an industrial environment. Telecommunications networks for industrial applications have to be reliable, secure, and able to support multiple use cases.

The project partners conduct the trial 5G network to determine if the use cases function efficiently in a single network. The 5G trial network is partitioned into virtual networks, which are customised to meet specific port application needs. Network slicing in 5G networks provides greater network flexibility and supports the port’s numerous and varied use cases.

The 5G trial programme in the Port of Hamburg is part part of the two-year 5G MoNArch research project. 5G MoNArch aims to promote the use of 5G mobile network architecture, by deploying 5G network slicing in real life test environments.

A second testbed is located in Turin, focusing on multi-media applications. The second phase of the project 5G MoNArch is co-funded by Horizon 2020, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

Peter Merz, Head of End-to-End Mobile Network Solutions of Nokia Bell Labs, stated: “The 5G trial programme in the Port of Hamburg opens the door to a whole new world of business applications that have the potential to change a lot of sectors. The aim is to considerably speed up industrial processes and make them more flexible. We will test all that in Hamburg under real life conditions for the first time. The importance of the project simply cannot be overstated.”